How often do you factory reset your phone? (results)

How often do you factory reset your phone?Never22.46% (535 votes)(535 votes)When I feel it's getting sluggish44.67% (1064 votes)(1064 votes)Only before I sell it32.87% (783 votes)(783 votes)

2382 votes


We asked you yesterday whether you hard reset your phones at all, given that some deep issues with them, as well as the inevitable slowdown over time, can only be solved this way, yet it requires some backup kung-fu on your part to save all the info and app settings you currently have. It turns out that, despite all these differences, factory resetting is still a popular way to solve performance problems for nearly 45% out of our 2381 respondents. A third only do a factory reset before they sell their phones, as the surefire way to clean it from all personal info, while 22% never bother, as their oldies are probably sitting in a drawer at home somewhere.


Let's face it, phones gum up, just as computers do. Rogue apps linger in the background, sucking up resources, flash memory gets bogged down, botched software updates leave that unpleasant feeling that something isn't working right, and this is valid for even the top-shelf handsets you can spend near a grand to buy. So, how often do you do a factory reset of your phone?

No, we aren't talking restarts here, which big software version updates do for you anyway, but actually resetting your device, and starting with it as a newborn child, curiously looking around and exploring the world. Granted, it does warrant some total backup before you do it, but it can potentially get rid of the lot of problems plaguing your handset, and is sometimes even the only option when things go terribly wrong.